Aer Lingus routes

Andrew33

Please excuse me if this has been raised before as I'm new to Boards,
Why don't Aer Lingus fly the Dublin to Oz route?
Etihad do it with a 330, AL have a new 330 which they could use (I know they could use one of the older ones too).
Surely with the Irish/Oz relationship even AL could make money on the route? I'm sure Etihad don't fly empty planes on the route!

highlydebased

Etihad dont fly direct Dublin-Austrailia, they fly to Abu Dhabi where you change aircraft - the "one stop only" flight is attractive.

AFAIK it was mentioned in the last presentation about austrailia. Not really justifiable at the moment anyway

Andrew33

Neon-Circles wrote: »

Etihad dont fly direct Dublin-Austrailia, they fly to Abu Dhabi where you change aircraft - the "one stop only" flight is attractive.

AFAIK it was mentioned in the last presentation about austrailia. Not really justifiable at the moment anyway

I'm aware they stop in Abu Dhabi, no commercial airliner has the certified range to do it in one go. On that point, do you change plane in Abu Dhabi or do they just refuel the one you're on? my mam and sister are this moment on board an Etihad A/C on the route which got me thinking about it!
Why is it not justifiable? afaik the longer haul routes (econ class) have suffered less than the short haul and AL would do well on this route.

BuffyBot

You change aircraft.

This has been discussed before (and quite recently). It would make no sense for EI to launch this route for a number of reasons. Dig up the old threads and read up

Lifelike

Andrew33 wrote: »

I'm aware they stop in Abu Dhabi, no commercial airliner has the certified range to do it in one go. On that point, do you change plane in Abu Dhabi or do they just refuel the one you're on? my mam and sister are this moment on board an Etihad A/C on the route which got me thinking about it!
Why is it not justifiable? afaik the longer haul routes (econ class) have suffered less than the short haul and AL would do well on this route.

Long haul routes have in fact suffered much worse than short haul. Because of the recession EI has cut flights to LAX, SFO and IAD meaning Ireland no longer has a direct service to America's West Coast, and their long-haul passenger numbers are down 25% on last year!

Andrew33

Lifelike wrote: »

Long haul routes have in fact suffered much worse than short haul. Because of the recession EI has cut flights to LAX, SFO and IAD meaning Ireland no longer has a direct service to America's West Coast, and their long-haul passenger numbers are down 25% on last year!

Maybe thats because their long haul routes are concentrated on one continent???
Diversification is the name of the game in this day and age. But I suppose they'd need to base a second A/C out in the UAE if they were to do the Oz thing which is probably not feasible.

Lifelike

Andrew33 wrote: »

Maybe thats because their long haul routes are concentrated on one continent???
Diversification is the name of the game in this day and age. But I suppose they'd need to base a second A/C out in the UAE if they were to do the Oz thing which is probably not feasible.

Not enough people travel between Ireland and Australia anyway. We don't need it also, as the Etihad stopover in Abu Dhabi is fine. The next step for Aer Lingus will hopefully be to restore flights to LA or San Fran. Then maybe launch direct flights to a Canadian destination such as Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver (Flyglobespan's demise means that no airline operates the Dublin-Vancouver or Dublin-Calgary routes anymore.)

pclancy

I would argue the market is there.

New Zealand has only a 4 million odd population similar to Ireland yet they run daily services from Auckland to Heathrow for example. A stop in a US city i'm sure helps fill them up.

Andrew33

pclancy wrote: »

I would argue the market is there.

New Zealand has only a 4 million odd population similar to Ireland yet they run daily services from Auckland to Heathrow for example. A stop in a US city i'm sure helps fill them up.

I would definitely agree with you, half of all australians can probably claim irish roots so I reckon the market is there too.
Someone else has posted that there's no need for AL to do it as Etihad are already doing it!!

Foggy43

When it comes to long haul what traveler are Aer Lingus after? Business or pleasure?
Business wise the big boys are starting or started new routes to Bangalore, Hyderabad, increased services to Mumbai and Delhi. New services to Beijing and Shanghai. The new and growing world business and technology centers.

This is where the money is and the planes are full.

enda1

pclancy wrote: »

I would argue the market is there.

New Zealand has only a 4 million odd population similar to Ireland yet they run daily services from Auckland to Heathrow for example. A stop in a US city i'm sure helps fill them up.

But isn't New Zealand still dependent on the crown?
This would lead to a lot of diplomatic traffic plus the fact that a lot of business travellers would travel this route (London being the financial hub that it is).

And in the end it really is business travellers which make a route profitable or not.

pclancy

True that must add traffic and revenue to the route, just seems weird that the market isnt there for EI. As above, with OZ taken into account as well it is a pretty big market. There seems to be more Irish in Sydney then Ozzies right now!

Lifelike

But remember a "direct" service from Dublin to Australia would have to stopover anyway. So what we would get wouldn't be much better than the Etihad service.

Routes to LAX and SFO will have to be restored first anyway before we ever even think about Australia. There's definitely a market there for flights to the American West coast.

FlutterinBantam

I think ,in fairness, that if EI thought they could make money out of an Oz route, they would have done it.

bear in mind the traffic they could expect and the yield

the number of a/c required to operate the route

The crew costs as due to the distance rest times would be long.

Would need a slip crew somewhere en route

Cost of recovering from even routine technical problems .


Very difficult to make money on such a service in my opinion.

Ald

IMO EI should try a Thai route and hook up with JetStar and do a combined package to Oz... The Thai route would offer travel direct to Asia for business/pleasure and offer onward travel options with agreed partners... I would have thought that would be a good direction to go or try for anyway. Especially with Alan Joyce, a Tallaght man, at the helms of Quantas...

Just a thought...

FlutterinBantam

Ald wrote: »

IMO EI should try a Thai route and hook up with JetStar and do a combined package to Oz... The Thai route would offer travel direct to Asia for business/pleasure and offer onward travel options with agreed partners... I would have thought that would be a good direction to go or try for anyway. Especially with Alan Joyce, a Tallaght man, at the helms of Quantas...

Just a thought...

Now that could be a runner.

However, and I don't mean to be disparaging, the yield from backpackers would make it a very tenuous operation .

What you need is the 'juice' from business class and I couldn't see too much on that routei

Has potential though.

enda1

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

Now that could be a runner.

However, and I don't mean to be disparaging, the yield from backpackers would make it a very tenuous operation .

What you need is the 'juice' from business class and I couldn't see too much on that routei

Has potential though.

Ah but its a thriving sex trade route. Sex always sells!

Tea 1000

Andrew33 wrote: »

I'm aware they stop in Abu Dhabi, no commercial airliner has the certified range to do it in one go. On that point, do you change plane in Abu Dhabi or do they just refuel the one you're on? my mam and sister are this moment on board an Etihad A/C on the route which got me thinking about it!
Why is it not justifiable? afaik the longer haul routes (econ class) have suffered less than the short haul and AL would do well on this route.

Actually a few do have the range. Quantas did have a non-stop LHR to SYD flight when they got their 747-400's, but it didn't last long as passengers didn't like being stuck in the aircraft for that long. Apparently even the first class passengers were tired and cranky!
On the change plane in Abu Dhabi, you do change there. That would be their hub, so they'd have an Abu Dhabi - Oz schedule that probably is timed so that a few other flights into Abu Dhabi can use it as a connection. Aisian based airlines do the same.
Quantas, BA and Virgin just stop over, the plane stays the same.

unattendedbag

The arabian airlines have a geographical advantage to the european/US or oceania airlines. Etihad using the UAE as a hub can offer long haul flights to almost every continent. It almost acts as a waypoint for anyone travelling from Europe to the Asia. That way their logistics and flight planning is easier and they can offer competetive prices as everyone just transfers and connects in Abu Dhabi. With a bit of planning, the flights arrive in Abu Dhabi a few hours before the onward flights depart for passenger convienience

Dantanian

I will be flying to New York next Monday and was wondering if anyone could tell me if Aer Lingus provide free refreshments ie. meals, drinks and most importantly alcohol??:D

Lifelike

Dantanian wrote: »

I will be flying to New York next Monday and was wondering if anyone could tell me if Aer Lingus provide free refreshments ie. meals, drinks and most importantly alcohol??:D

Aer Lingus serve a three-course meal on long-haul flights. Nonalcoholic drinks are free, but you'll have to pay for alcohol unless you're flying Business Class.

You'll also get in-flight entertainment which is supposed to be good (I'm flying there soon but haven't tried it out yet).

StephenM_smc

Lifelike wrote: »

You'll also get in-flight entertainment which is supposed to be good (I'm flying there soon but haven't tried it out yet).

There are plenty of movies and a good selection of TV shows. They had an entire season on in treatment available when I flew with them in January/February.